


VEIL

by ivorygates, synecdochic



Series: alternate abydos [3]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-31
Updated: 2007-07-31
Packaged: 2018-05-31 00:37:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6448537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivorygates/pseuds/ivorygates, https://archiveofourown.org/users/synecdochic/pseuds/synecdochic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(The one in which Daniel, his twin Dana're, and Jack were all born on Abydos.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	VEIL

**Author's Note:**

> Despite what AO3 insists, this story is the third in the 'Alternate Abydos' Series, following Mirage and Oasis. The rest can be found over at Synecdochic's place.

The _sha'lo'qi_ of Oneer and Dana're is celebrated in the winter season, when rain comes to the Deep Desert, and the people leave Nagada for a brief season to tend the fields at Qarun, for in winter the yaphetta stands ready to be harvested, and the fields sown again against next year's harvest. Winter is a fortunate season for marriage, for the land is at its most fertile, and it is a good omen for the marriage to come.

Better even than that is that the people come from every village on Abydos to the Winter Harvest at Qarun, for the fields are vast, and the labor of many is needed if they are to surrender their bounty. The ripening grain, the orchards of figs and dates, require little tending until the harvest, and such tending as must be done is traditionally the province of the very young and the very old, who are unable to toil in the mines. But when the harvest comes, every hand is needed for the reaping and threshing, and to gather the bounty of the orchards.

At Qarun there is water, a vast oasis, made vaster still by the canals dug to water the crops. Each winter a city of tents blossoms upon its shore, there to remain for three turns of the moons from bright to dark before the people depart again. In that time there is work, yes, but also joy, and many a young bride goes to her new husband's tent for the first time at Winter Harvest, sent off with music and laughter and as lavish a feast as her family can provide, for it is only fitting that a woman's new-pledged husband know that her family values the treasure they have surrendered into his keeping.

Though many _sha'lo'qi_ are celebrated this season, the one presented by the House of Kasuf is the most lavish, and, fittingly, it is the last. Two full weeks does the feasting and drinking continue, and it is more than a celebration of the marriage of Kasuf's youngest daughter, it is a celebration of the completion of a fine harvest, and all are welcome to feast at Kasuf's tables. Sheep and goats and pigeons without number are offered up in celebration, uncounted jugs of beer and jars of wine, baskets of fresh figs and ripe sweet dates and bread loaves both sweet and salt.

Oneer was five turns of the moons in the House of Kasuf when it became known that he would take Dana're of the House of Kasuf for his wife, and in that time he had become known to all of Nagada as a good man. First among hunters, a steady overseer of the mines, patient and fair and merry. And as much as all these things, he was brother-not-of-blood to Dan'yel-who-walked-with-Gods, nor was he daunted to stand at Dan'yel's side, nor to let Dan'yel's shadow fall upon him at noonday. And in seeing all these things, there had been no one among who went apart to Kasuf behind the curtain to say that this marriage should not be made.

Well it was that there was not, for he and Dana're had already been in one another's company two moons by that time, for after three moons as more-than-guest in the House of Kasuf, Oneer had shaken off the last of his old life as the desert adder sheds his skin, and the man revealed had not only won Dan'yel's heart long since, but had shown himself a man who could not only please Dan'yel's sister, but find happiness with her as well. All that had remained was to see if they two could agree upon that truth, for Dan'yel already knew that his twin was as stubborn as a goat, and he had come to know that Oneer was of a spirit that might be persuaded but never forced. It was a joyful thing to Dan'yel to watch his dearest heart and his dearest love move from careful politeness, to something of comfort, to the truly-memorable clashes of wills that presaged a love as enduring - if as volatile - as the godsmetal itself. It was upon the day that Oneer swore he must have Dana're to his wife if only for the right to beat her and Dana're swore she would see Oneer returned to the deep pit before nightfall or she would go there herself that Dan'yel was truly certain they could find their happiness, for Oneer valued honesty above all things and Dana're would value no man who walked wide of her birth or her tongue. And so it was that within a day that quarrel was mended between them, and only a few days more passed before each of them had come separately to him and said that their heart was fixed upon the other. Oneer asked his blessing to the courtship and Dana're asked him to remember his promise that he would be the one to choose her husband, and Dan'yel could see no more purpose in withholding either promise or blessing. When he went to Kasuf-their-father to say that Oneer would be the husband of Dana're, Kasuf accepted his word with joy, and the settlement of the marriage contract between the House of Kasuf and the house of Oneer was a small matter, and light work. And the time and the place of the _sha'lo'qi_ when Kasuf would surrender his daughter into the hands of Oneer was set.

#

During the entire day she has been glancing toward Dan'yel when she thinks he does not see, and her face is troubled. Tonight for the first time she will go to the tent of Oneer, and his sister is as bold as any man and bolder than some, but tonight she hides behind her sister and her cousins as if she is to become bride to Ra Himself, nor will she even look in the direction of the man with whom she is to wed.

Dan'yel is the knower-of-knowings, and he and Dana're have been one since they slept together beneath their mother's heart, yet this he does not understand. His sister goes not to the arms of a stranger, for Oneer has dwelt more than half a year beneath her father's roof, and five times the moons have gone from dark to full now since Dan'yel first permitted her into Oneer's company. Until this very day she has been cheerful and easy in his company, as pleased with him as he is with her, the match all that her heart-twin could hope for. Nor, certainly, are the ways of man and woman strange to her, and with marriage she may hope for what any woman hopes for: to quicken and grow great with child. Dan'yel would think it proper modesty that causes Dana're to hold her veil so close and keep her eyes cast downward, save that he knows his sister as well as he knows himself. Dana're fears the marriage-tent as one who has been kept so closely that she goes to her husband not only virgin, but maiden still, and this is something for which Dan'yel can find no cause.

There is still time to unmake the betrothal, though it would bring great dishonor to all of them, for it is not true marriage until the bride rises from her marriage-bed with tomorrow's dawn, nor, despite all the words that have been given, is any contract truly made until Oneer and Dana're stand before Kasuf-her-father and she is given over into Oneer's keeping. As yet, it is only a thing agreed, not a thing accomplished, and can, with shame and scandal, yet be undone.

"You are troubled, Dan'yel," Oneer says to him, setting a cup of wine into his hand. They stand together on the men's side of the fire; the time for dancing together, men and women, has not yet come, and Dana're will not dance tonight; it is not the custom for a bride to dance at her _sha'lo'qi_ on the pledging-day. And even though men and women mingle freely at a _sha'lo'qi_ , there will be a gentle conspiracy among all here to keep Oneer and Dana're apart until the moment Kasuf puts her hand into his. Though truly, Dan'yel thinks she might flee into the desert before that moment.

Dan'yel shakes his head ruefully. "I had thought this would be a happier day," he says. He has no need to say more, for Oneer is his brother-not-of-blood; Dan'yel need not fear for an instant that he will fall to the earth wailing of blights and curses. Instead, he merely slips an arm around Dan'yel's waist and glances across the fire, to where Dana're lurks behind Sha're-their-eldersister as if she is pursued by jackals.

"Join us to celebrate our joy this night," Oneer says merely, turning his face to press a kiss upon Dan'yel's cheek.

Dan'yel frowns faintly, flicking a newly-puzzled glance toward his beloved, for it is not the custom, and Oneer knows it as well as he - as well as Dana're. Though a wife will often welcome her husband's brother-not-of-blood to their bed, her first child must be seen by all to be her husband's, and so the beginning-time of their marriage is reserved to them alone. It is not law that a man shall keep his wife's bed chaste, nor resort overmuch to his concubines, until she is with child, no more than it is law that he shall not take a second wife until the first has gotten her rights of him, but custom is a stronger yoke than law, for all that the people may choose to turn the eye of love upon its transgression where the priest of the law may only offer mercy.

"For tonight, perhaps the next, no more," Oneer murmurs, low in his ear so that none may hear. "It is not the marriage she dislikes, nor the bedding that she fears. Indeed," he says, soft laughter in his voice, "she has told me often enough that she is impatient enough for both. But now that the hour is upon her, she fears the coming of a thing that will set her apart from you, my Dan'yel."

"It will not," Dan'yel says slowly, but he cannot say that Dana're's fears are idle or foolish, not when Oneer's words have summoned into the light a thought that he was holding so close within his own heart that he could not see it until the words of his brother called it forth.

"How can it, when we three will be together?" Oneer answers simply. "Go now, if you will, and take my words to her, so that she need wonder no longer how it is to be with us. I shall not call down the anger of the Gods by saying to you that you will hold her child in your arms when the seasons have turned again, but I do not think they will turn their faces from you now when they have held you in their hearts for so long."

"All is at the will of Ra," Dan'yel responds, but he feels no sense of transgression in Oneer's words, ill-luck though it so often is to name the face of the coming day, especially upon a day of celebration such as this. Oneer merely speaks of what could so easily be, as a hunter speaks of a likely district to course for game, or the gleaners of the best places to dig for sandplums. He takes Oneer's cup from his hand. "I shall bring her this from you."

"Bring her also my promise that I desire her as greatly as I desire her brother," Oneer says, "and say to her that I mean to please her as he has."

"An artful promise, from one who once assured me he had no tongue for soft speech," Dan'yel says teasingly, though he is certain there is as much honesty as art in the words. "And the words and the wine together, I think, will gain for you the presence of your bride at the pledge-giving."

"Ai, Dan'yel, your tongue cuts like a knife - anyone would think you had not been raised within walls at all," Oneer answers, laughing.

"So I have been told - most often by she whom you would take as your wife," Dan'yel answers dulcetly, lowering his lashes in a show of modest surrender.

"Then she is wise enough that her wisdom will be balm for all my foolishness. Go then, and be certain she does not change her mind." Oneer makes shooing motions toward the women of the House of Kasuf.

And Dan'yel, lightened of a burden of the heart he had not known that he carried, goes to obey.

#


End file.
